Imitation

We generally learn the most from those we most admire, or at least from those we feel akin to.

Religiously, there is a lot of similarity between conservative politicians and the Taliban. Just look at the attitudes expressed toward the need for women to be submissive, the attempt to have our civil laws based on one particular religious set of beliefs, and, most recently, the decision by a conservative court that a woman can be fired if her boss finds her too attracitve with himself unable to control his lusty thoughts.

Its burka time for the ladies.

And then there is the love of the hostage situation.We have seen a lot of those.

And now here it is in American politics.

The American people re-elected President Obama, and the Republicans don't like that. So, in order to get what they want, they are going to keep Americans hostage until they get their way.

As the AP reported, “For the Senate to act would require a commitment from McConnell not to demand a 60-vote margin to consider the legislation on the Senate floor. McConnell’s office says it’s too early to make such an assessment because Obama’s plan is unclear on whether extended benefits for the unemployed would be paid for with cuts in other programs or on how it would deal with an expiring estate tax, among other issues.”

Republicans are now revealing that their concern over the fiscal cliff is fake since every year since the 2010 midterm elections, congressional Republicans have demanded spending cuts in exchange for any unemployment benefits extension. Obviously instead of this demand being unique to the fiscal cliff, it is a repeated tactic.

Boehner seems to have really blown it with his Plan B debacle, so now Mitch McConnell has taken the leading role.

His going once again to the “let's threaten the unemployed” well shows this has little, if anything, to really do with the deficit, but more to do with McConnell's belief that unemployment insurance takes away the incentive to work by making the unemployed lazy and dependent on government. And we all know this to be true since the wealth amassed on unemployment is phenominal.

And, people like Mitch like to pretend that all it would take is for the unemployed to just go out and look for work, ignoring that study after study shows that instead of creating jobs, the suppose job creators have kept the money they are making as pure profit.

If the threat is so easily applied to so many situations, how specific is it to the fiscal cliff? And, if it is the biggest threat related to it, how real is the fiscal cliff?

The answer clearly is that the fiscal clff is a myth and a ploy.

The American people are being held hostage to the bogey man of the Republicans' invention in order for them to get what they want. It is the threat of the monster in the closet that helps the babysitter keep the unthinking and gullible kid in the bed and from getting up.

The Republicans won't accept that they lost, and will do anything to get what they want, even if it means making things up.

They should be working for the American people, but, instead, are just trying to get their political way.

Grow up guys!

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About this Blog

Joe Quigley grew up on the South and North Shores of Massachusetts. He has taught in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Oklahoma City. He has been a successful Labor and GLBT rights activist and cartoonist in the places where he has taught, and has won awards for his teaching, activism, and cartooning on the local and national levels. He is the 2012 recipient of the Angie Debo Award of the ACLU of Oklahoma for his years working for the protection of GLBT students in the Oklahoma City Public Schools. Joe has many friends involved in local and national politics who keep him informed of what is going on. Yep, he is an unabashed liberal. Mr. Quigley's blog was recently referred to as the "Musings of the Elizabeth Warren of Political Cartooning" by one of his daily followers, a compliment he humbly accepts and proudly mentions..